Charlotte messenger. [volume] (Charlotte, Mecklenburg Co., N.C.) 1882-18??, 1887-09-03
+" SNApPERS."
TIE TOOTHSOME AND PUGNA
CIOUS FRESH WATER TURTLE.
Re'ished as a Delicacy in Pennsyl-
vania = Peculiarities of the
Swapping Turtle-How
1t is Caught.

New York Times says: Swapping turtle
soups and stews are dishes never seen on
the bills of fare of New York restaurants
or hotels, and the New York free-lunch
counter has not yet added them to itb
list. In Philadelphia, Harrisburg, Pitts
burg, and, in fact every town on the line
of the Pennsylvania Railroad in this State
big enough to have restaurant or free
lunch route, the swapping turtle, or
''snapper," as this pugnacious fresh-wa-
ter chelonian is locally called, is deli
cacy that's sure to draw crowd whenever
and wherever it is served.
A popularity of the swapping turtle is
that beneath its formidable shell are hid
den different kinds Of meat, and every
one is well favored, tender, and juicy.
The snapper does not provide stakes, like
the green turtle, although it grows large
enough, almost attaining in deep, slug
gish watera weight of forty-fve pounds,
but turtle of that size is of great age
and his meat is strong and unsavory. The
choice turtles are between five and ten
pounds in weight. Il
With the exception, probably, of the
snapper of the waters of the southwest
of the Mississippi with its three-cornered
head knobby shell, and long, thick legs,
covered with spiny warts, the swapping
turtle is the ugliest-looking member Of
chelonian family. It's head is one-quar-
ter the size of its body. Its jaws are
hooked like the beak of bird of prey.
Far forward on the upper jaw are sci
its large, prominent, yellow eyes. Its
powerful scaly legs terminate in long,
sharp claws, four on the front legs and
three on the hind legs. Its tail is hall
as long as its body, thick at the base,
running TO sharp point, and crested
with saw-like row of bony scales The
she'll of the swapping turtle resembles 8
mosaic of Egyptian hieroglyphics.
When angered, which it becomes on the
slightest provocation, the snapper rises
erect on its powerful legs, and with its
long neck extended to its full length, its
tail straightened, out like a small alliga-
tor, dts yellow eyes glaring with fury,
it approaches the object of its rage by
savage jumps, drawing its neck into the
shell and shooting it out again with
/ lightning rapidity when within striking
distance.
A fisherman who lands forty pound
swapping turtle in boat will find that he
and not the turtle is caught, as the
writer knows by experience. The head
of snapper of that size will weigh ten
pounds, and man might just as well
have an alligator close bis mouth on
him as to have the jaws of that head get
a hitch somewhere on his leg. In the
South the negroes call the swapping tur-
tie alligator cooter."
The swapping turtle is an awkward
pedestrian, but in the water it is quick
as flash. The wary and sudden trout
is no match for the great amphibean,
and no enemy of the trout is mere per-
sistent and destructive. The snapper
lies in wait beneath the surface of ponds
and streams, where aquatic fowls, es-
pecially goslings and ducklings, are apt
TO swim, and, coming up as fleet and
silent as a shadow under the unsuspect-
ing prey, seizes it with one snap of his
jaws, and it disappears beneath the sur
face without an instant's delay. The
snapper is partial to muskrats, and
watches at their holes for them. If no
rat appears the turtle makes his way in
to the burrow by the subterranean pas
sage the muskrat always tunnels to his
nest and seizes its game ON its own thresh-
old. Reptiles Of all kinds, especially
the water snake, are a favorite morsel
for the snapper, and fish know the turtle
to their sorrow
Old river hunters declare that swapping
turtles are so wise that the moment they
hear the sound Of a gun along the water
they know some one is hunting birds
that feed along the shores and in the
reeds and flags. Then the snapper gets
itself in position to look out for
wounded birds that fall into the water.
If any fall they are the snapper's meat.
The snapper has its home in streams
and ponds. In Central Pennsylvania it
is found principally in the streams.
Every female lays not less than twenty
, eggs, the average number being thirty,
She goes some distance from the water.
in the middle Of June, digs hole in the
ground directly downward, and foot or